Games you've instantly regretted buying

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Have you ever picked up a game where the very minute you hit the "Buy" button or handed over the cash, you immediately knew this was a horrible decision?

It doesn't necessarily have to be because the game is bad. I mean the hairs stood up on the back of your neck warning you of the dark cloud forming over your choice.

This just happened to me recently. I currently have...or had...a perfect gaming balance jumping between Fallout 4, BATTLETECH, Stellaris, The Sims 4, and Warhammer 2: Total War.

Life was good. Before the dark times. Before the pre-purchase of WoW: Battle for Azeroth expansion.

I have nothing against WoW. I really enjoyed my time over the years hopping in and out of the game. But ever since Mists of Pandaria , I barely played with any dedication. So here I am last night, downloading WoW again. Just to, you know, just to see.

"Well, it'll take a while to download. Maybe I'll get distracted and change my"

PLAY

"Oh. That's right. You can play while it downloads in the background. I guess I'll just tool around with..."

AMAZING BATTLE FOR AZEROTH CINEMATIC

"Ok that was pretty good. But I'm about 20 levels behind where I'd..."

PRE-PURCHASE NOW FOR A BOOST TO 110

"...*sigh*. FINE."

So I buy the expansion. I install it. It's wonderful. Keep in mind I skipped Warlords of Draenor and Legion, so the changes to the gameplay are dramatic to me. I'm having a blast.

Then I realize there are dozens upon dozens of quest exclamation marks. There's so much to do. So much to catch up on. Wait, Varian's dead? I'm going to either play just this for months or tinker around for a week and stop.

And now Fallout 4, BATTLETECH, Stellaris and all the Total Wars are going to sit there in stasis like an insect in amber.

I can't be the only one this has happened to. Anyone else know their new game was just a horrible choice?

For me that's game bundles which I've stopped buying unless there's a specific game I want to play.

I've found myself adding 8+ Steam codes to my account and having no interest in installing any of them. Why did I just spend 20 minutes buying and activating a bunch of games if I'll never even install them?

Sometimes, but I usually buy stuff on steam so I can get a quick refund. I usually feel regret after microtransactions. Opening 50 Hearthstone packs, getting none of the cards I wanted.... really wishing I had that £35 back... That sort of thing.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/h3kXUTw.jpg)

Got Pac-Man (2600) at launch back in '82. I was hyped beyond belief, even suffering through a delay as it was pushed from Q4 '81 to Q1 '82.

Got home with the game and it feels like my hands were shaking I was so excited unwrapping the box (though this might be an exaggerated memory).

But what isn't an exaggeration was just how gutted I was 30 seconds after firing it up. It was a complete and utter s**t-show of a port.

I even remember my dad passing through the room and commenting, "Boy, that doesn't look like the arcade game at all."

I burned with hot fury and shame (for being so hyped).

Even decades later, my biggest gaming disappointment to date.

I guess these days it's looked back on as this kitschy yet charming relic of the past, and I guess it is in a way. People have warmed to it's awkward origins.

But at the time? Man, 11-year-old Aaron was destroyed, lol.

Literally every time I buy an MP only game. I know that I'm going to play it for a week or two at most, then get bored or frustrated and never go back. But I keep getting tempted by the hype, and I buy more than I should (which is zero). I'm getting better, but still haven't completely learned my lesson.

Heart of Iron IV. I knew when I felt completely out of depth playing Italy in 1935 that this game was not for me. The nail in the coffin was the realization I couldn’t just produce an infantry division but had to recruit troops from one area, produce rifles in another city, etc. Just give me my super soldiers already!

Cosmic Commander "controller" for the 2600 with Survival Run game
IMAGE(http://www.handheldmuseum.com/MB/MB-CosmicCommander2600.jpg)

The kid in me thought this was some sort of separate display with a really interesting controller to work with the one pack in game for the 2600. Turned out it was a huge hunk of plastic that does the up, down, left, right of the atari joystick, with one button that would make a light bulb turn on to light the plastic display whenever you attempt to fire.

Oh and the huge piece of plastic pretty much made it nearly impossible to move up, down, left, right, defeating the whole point of the controller.

An actual game one, Virtual Karts from MicroProse.
IMAGE(https://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/88469-virtual-karts-dos-front-cover.jpg)

I remember getting this for two quarters at Egghead way way back, thinking, 'How bad could a racing game like this could be?'. Extremely... first game I only played for a few minutes and never touched again and actually used the CD as a drink coaster.

Ni No Kuni 2

IMAGE(https://apollo2.dl.playstation.net/cdn/EP0700/CUSA09243_00/FREE_CONTENTeBBcCu1YvIZbQJMQmJjy/ninokuni_08.jpg)

I should have learned from the first one that beauty don't make a fun game...I was suckered in by the gorgeous presentation.

Budo, I don't think you are the only one who got bit by the WoW bug.
I bit with 7.3.5 which is where most of the class changes began.
8.0 say the biggest changes in only a handful of classes plus the artifact
weapon abilities being rolled into talents.
I hadn't played since a few months into Cataclysm and I've been hooked
for months at the cost of a few new releases I haven't put as much time
as I've wanted into.

I don't regret it for a second.

Oh and since I pre-purchased BFA, I had to also buy Legion. So for $80
I got a 100 boost and a 110 boost plus Demon Hunters which is essentially
a 98 boost. And while limited to one class and two races, you can boost
on every server, and each faction.

I can't say I've ever had that feeling at the time of purchase. There's certainly been times I've been burned by pretty pictures on a Steam sale where I pull the trigger before reading reviews (Bound by Flame... ug), but the Steam sale has become much less impulse-sale driven and their refund policy is good, so generally there's no real harm done. Unfortunately on that one I didn't even load it up the first time until two weeks after I bought it, work was crazy at the time, so that one sits in my library as a constant reminder to not be so impulsive... and to read the damn reviews.

I have a love/hate relationship with WoW, and the hate keeps me from all subscription based games now. I loved Vanilla WoW, even Burning Crusade was good, but paying $15 a month to play sets it in my head that I should be playing that game because I'm paying on a monthly basis for access. So all my other games that don't require monthly subs take a back seat, even when the fun disappears in a wisp of smoke. It was awesome during the early days when we had a busy guild and I had a static group I ran with, but the last time I jumped in (got MoP on a Black Friday sale for $5 and played the month of access out) the guild was pretty dead and the game itself without the social aspect wasn't enough to justify $15/mo for me.

I think the only break to this rule would be short-term subs to Free-to-Play games. I can grab a week, maybe two of premium status in WarThunder for fairly cheap, it runs about the same as normal subscription MMO, but I get perks for the time I paid for. I play that for a couple weeks when the mood strikes, and when the premium time runs out I go play something else, or just keep playing for free without the extra perks. I would do this for WoW if I could get a decent portion of the game for free, allow me to get in and earn the in-game freemium tokens to pay for the higher stuff, then when it runs out limit me back down to the free stuff (which is hopefully more than level 20 cap with no chat or auction functionality... Blizzard really is a joke on that front).

Yeah despite really wanting to play No Mans Sky it's so buggy I moved back to WOW. Salvation was awesome and gifted me a copy of BoA so I am in it for the long haul again.

Started leveling an Orc Monk and with the new posture they look awesome so I may start maining horde. Also decided to get my Paladin ready for the expansion so I've managed to go from 91 to 103 in the last few days. I've been sinking alot of time in and I'm loving it.

The other games I was hoping to get to are going to fall to the sidelines now though unfortunately

Not at the time of purchase, but as soon as I started playing I regretted buying both Transistor (sorry, don't get it), and Invisible, Inc (I super suck at it).

fangblackbone wrote:

Budo, I don't think you are the only one who got bit by the WoW bug.
I bit with 7.3.5 which is where most of the class changes began.
8.0 say the biggest changes in only a handful of classes plus the artifact
weapon abilities being rolled into talents.
I hadn't played since a few months into Cataclysm and I've been hooked
for months at the cost of a few new releases I haven't put as much time
as I've wanted into.

I don't regret it for a second.

Oh and since I pre-purchased BFA, I had to also buy Legion. So for $80
I got a 100 boost and a 110 boost plus Demon Hunters which is essentially
a 98 boost. And while limited to one class and two races, you can boost
on every server, and each faction.

Oof. That's comforting and distressing to hear at the same time. I'm certain I'll have fun with WoW, that's not a question for me. It's just to what extent am I just going to get lost doing the wrong quests, missing the storyline, getting sidetracked by a quest that looks important but turns out is just a minor mission. That sort of thing.

MechAssault on xbox back in the day. Some friends convinced me the multiplayer was great. I did not agree.

@budo - I think others can give their impressions here too.
For me you kinda get covered on all bases in a round about way.
By level:
1-60: content scales so stay as long as you want on a quest line. Plus you can get good/fast xp all the way up to 64 with old world 1-60 content
61(64)-80: this is the black hole of leveling in WoW. If you find a quest line you want to complete, you have plenty of time to do it while you are queuing for dungeons to not go mad from tedium.
81-90: You will miss a lot of big picture story from both Cata and Pandaria but you have time to finish a few individual quest lines.
91-98: you are sort of on rails with leading up to and building your garrison. You will abandon it for the much better Legion Broken Isles content
98-110: You pretty much have to complete 3-4 of the areas along with your class hall and artifact weapons quests in order to reach 110 so you won't be missing out on anything you set your mind to.

EA NHL series. I had great experiences with the series in college with '94, had great experience with the series in the mid 2000's when EASHL first came out. But each year I buy it, play it heavily for the first day or so, then people figure out all the glitch goals, and I just put it on the shelf, hate myself for buying it, and repeat the process next year.

Whatever the newest Wolfenstein game (New Colossus? New Order?) is. Between constant hard locks, dull gameplay, and over-wrought story... meh.

WoW for me. I bought BoA a few months back right before finally beating the guardian mage tower on my druid. Unsubscribed and haven't logged in since, just finally got sick of grinding. If its possible to gift, whoever wants it can have it.

Mario_Alba wrote:

Not at the time of purchase, but as soon as I started playing I regretted buying both Transistor (sorry, don't get it), and Invisible, Inc (I super suck at it).

Both of these have been been sitting on the pile for years. Guess they'll sit a while longer.

As for me, I'd say Cave Story+ . I'm not a fan of platformers or pixel graphics but I bought into the hype. "Maybe this will be the game to make me change my mind about these things", I told myself.
Wrong.

Vermintide 2. I actually love the game but I found out that it was free on the Xbox Game pass half a day after I bought it, having already passed the 2 hour playtime window for refunds.
Not instant per se, but probably the closest I’ve come.

I'm with Mario_Alba; my buyer's remorse tends to kick in during the opening few minutes of games.

Bayonetta is the one I regret the most, because it never sounded like my type of game to begin with. However, it was so well reviewed that I allowed myself to be persuaded to give it a try. I managed 5 minutes, removed the disc from the machine, and gave the game away as a birthday present.

I regretted blind purchasing Danganronpa 2 as soon as I started playing Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and realised that I hated it. And I'm also regretting blind purchasing Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma, Zero Escape Virtues Last Rewards, and Zero Escape: The Nonary Games.

I suspect that the PS Vita is going to be the system for which most of my poor game-buying decisions have been made. I picked up my Vita earlier this year, and I've felt a fair bit of pressure to build a decent library before the digital games disappear from the PS store and before the Play Asia runs out of physical ones.

As a result I've bought a stack of games based on 'Best Of...' lists and Metacritic scores, rather than actual reviews. I've never played JRPGs, but now I own at least three of them. I expect to be regretting buying Final Fantasy X and X/2, and Shiren the Wanderer fairly soon...

Star Wars Battlefront. I got caught up in the hype and made a terrible decision. While I didn't hate Final Fantasy XIII, I was about 8 hours into XIII-2 and getting more and more frustrated. I gave up soon after.

Grenn wrote:

Star Wars Battlefront. I got caught up in the hype and made a terrible decision. While I didn't hate Final Fantasy XIII, I was about 8 hours into XIII-2 and getting more and more frustrated. I gave up soon after.

Interesting, I'm nearly finished with XIII-2 and am enjoying it so much more than XIII. The sequel has its own issues, but overall I can stomach them.

I'm struggling to think of cases where I instantly regretted a purchase. Maybe Super Meat Boy? I knew it was super hard, but still bought it and never got past the first world or two. At the same time, movement in that game feels so good that it's still enjoyable to jump around. So maybe it's not something I regret, even though it's probably not something I should have spent money on.

Blasto! for the PSX. What a bummer.

I'm going to have to say The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth +, with Tumbleseed coming in second. Two games that I would say are made to a high quality and succeed in everything they set out to do but, at the same time, definitely aren't for me.

Edit: Really interesting reading everyone's answers!

I didn't actually buy it - THANK YOU, GAMEFLY - but if I had, Nier Automata would definitely be on the list. I've loved my fair share of traditional/Japanese RPGs over the years, but I don't seem to have the focus to actually get through them anymore. Even so, with all the love I've heard since it came out, I figured it would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, I just didn't find it all that fun. I played for several hours before I ended up ejecting the disk and putting it back in its envelope to return to sender.

Not an instant regret, but it didn't take long.

I got crazy into Anarchy Online for a month back in 2005 or 2006. The base game was free to play, but you had to pay to have and use the expansion content. In one big purchase, I ordered Anarchy Online: Alien Invasion, The Notum Wars, and Shadowlands, and bought a 6 month pass.

Then I went on a 3 (or 6, depending on which year it actually was) week trip to Europe. When I came back I had totally lost all interest in AO, and never played any of the expansions. Not sure if I ever even installed them.

On a related note, I paid for Dark Age of Camelot for at least 18 months, but only played during the first. Somehow they even managed to charge an automatic 6-month subscription extension to a recently expired debit card. As I knew the card would expire before the subscription was due to renew, I didn't bother to officially cancel ahead of time. Learned a lesson there.

Spent $200 on Steel Battalion and was just not impressed with the game. Thought other games would make use of the controller but they never did. So eventually ebayed it. Bought lifetimes to The Secret World and Star Trek Online. Got bored with both within a year. Also both went free to play. No man’s sky was a bummer for me cause a friend was hyped and said it had multiplayer.

The worst offender I can’t even recall the name of it but it was on pc. Bought it to play multiplayer and when I got home inside the box was a piece of paper saying multiplayer would be patched in at a later date. This was in the 90s.

Brizahd wrote:

The worst offender I can’t even recall the name of it but it was on pc. Bought it to play multiplayer and when I got home inside the box was a piece of paper saying multiplayer would be patched in at a later date. This was in the 90s.

That Derek Smart game, Battle Cruiser 2000 ? I think it did that around that time frame

Reaper81 wrote:

Whatever the newest Wolfenstein game (New Colossus? New Order?) is. Between constant hard locks, dull gameplay, and over-wrought story... meh.

This was me too -- I'm just not into shooters anymore. Then I fell for the critical hype about the story, and it was cheap, and ... I couldn't even make it out of the tutorial.

Any Paradox game. Stellaris, Europa Universalis,... It should be my bread and butter, but I can't get through the learning curve. And thing is: I know this while purchasing it, and still fool myself every time.

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